Baki, Beastars Creators Reveal Surprising Family Connection

Beastars and Baki may both start with a “B”, but that’s about all that these two vastly different anime series have in common. Baki, which first began as the manga franchise titled Baki The Grappler, was released in the recent past on Netflix with an all new anime series. Beastars is going to be joining Baki as part of the Netflix anime lifestyle. Both these anime series may have even more in common than you originally thought as the creator of Baki and the creator of Beastars happen to be father and daughter!

Anime News Network shared the discovery on their Official Twitter Account that the creator of Baki, Keisuke Itagaki, and the creator of Beastars, Paru Itagaki, share not just a love for creating anime but also a bloodline, as it appears that putting together franchises for Netflix runs in the family:

Baki has recently wrapped up its recent revival on Netflix, with no news as of yet as to whether the aspiring fighter, who is attempting to become the best in the world, will be returning for a second season. Beastars is inching closer and closer to its debut and we’ll have to monitor to see if this latest franchise from Paru manages to live up to her father’s work.

What do you think of this anime family connection? Are you looking forward to Beastars? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, Baki, and Beastars!

Originally created by Keisuke Itagaki for Weekly Shonen Magazine, Baki The Grappler ran between 1991 and 1999 and has been collected into 42 volumes. The sequel Baki, which the anime is based on, ran in Weekly Shonen Champion from 1999 to 2005, and has been collected into 31 volumes. The third series, Baki Hanma, ran from 2005 to 2012 and has been collected into 37 volumes, and the most recent sequel Baki-Dou began serialization in March 2014. It has since been adapted into several anime series, OVAs, and spinoff manga.

Beastars was originally created by Paru Itagaki for Akita Shonen’s Weekly Shonen Champion in 2016, and has run for 14 volumes so far. The series has been licensed for an English language release by Viz Media, and they describe it as such, “Instead of Jocks and Nerds, the Students Are Divided into Predators and Prey. One night at Cherryton Academy, an herbivore student is brutally murdered. Among the members of the Drama Club, the herbivores’ suspicions naturally turn to their carnivore classmates… The prime suspect? Wolf Legoshi. But he wouldn’t hurt a fly. Or would he? Will dwarf rabbit Haru bring out the beast in him? Or are his feelings for her…something else?”